Megan Vermillion has a saying she lives by: “I cannot let people fall through the cracks of our systems.” As Director of Survivor Services at Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center in Akron, Ohio, she has backed that conviction with eight years of relentless, solution-oriented work, opening doors to services for survivors whom systems have historically left behind.

Megan formalized Hope and Healing’s first-ever Memorandum of Understanding with Summit County Juvenile Court, bringing advocacy directly to youth in detention. She opened access to services for incarcerated survivors and launched weekly trauma-informed support groups at Summit County Jail, groups that now run with a wait list. She built the Access to Care Program’s drop-in center, a low-barrier space where survivors can share a warm meal, access basic needs, and build trust in social and community services before ever walking into a courtroom or hospital.

Beyond Hope and Healing, Megan chairs the Summit County Sexual Assault Response Team and leads the survivor services presence on the Summit Regional Human Trafficking Task Force. She is known, as colleague Ashley Kline puts it, for “an unbelievable amount of compassion and dedication to survivors that is just endless” and for her ability to approach systems not with criticism, but with a question: how can we help?

Volunteer advocate Dodie Sacia, who has worked alongside Megan since her first days at the agency, offers the simplest summary: “I wish there were more Megans in the world. She’s hard to match.”

EVAWI is proud to recognize Megan Vermillion as a Game Changer, a leader whose belief that no survivor should be unreachable is transforming care across Northeast Ohio.